ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When the Broncos defeated the Kansas City Chiefs for the first time in eight years last October, first-year Denver coach Sean Payton wasn’t eager to celebrate the win as a monumental achievement. Patrick Mahomes had tortured the Broncos for the better part of a decade, but Payton wasn’t interested in putting the victory — a rather ugly, 24-9 win that featured offensive struggles on both sides — on a pedestal.
“It’s an important game for us. It wasn’t streak-driven,” he said afterward. “Obviously, we’re playing a good team. … There were a lot of things to look at that were positive. We’re going to play in bigger games than that, but it is a division game, and I’m glad we won.”
Payton has said winning division games is important for the obvious reason that it hurts the opponent while it helps your team. It’s also true that many Denver players haven’t been a part of the eight-game losing streak to the Raiders beyond last year’s two losses. They don’t shoulder the full weight of the losing streak. Quarterback Bo Nix, for example, on Sunday will be playing the Raiders for the first time.
Still, Payton allowed Wednesday that there is more to Sunday’s matchup.
“It’s a division opponent; this is our first chance to play a division opponent (this season),” Payton said Wednesday. “Last year, we finished 3-3 in the division. I can’t recall a team that has accomplished anything worthwhile finishing .500 in your division. Then, you take a team like Las Vegas, there’s a long, storied history, and certainly, I appreciate that, especially with our fans. It’s our job to play our best football Sunday.”
Make no mistake, Sunday is a huge game for Payton, perhaps the most important he’s had since taking over as the coach of the Broncos in 2023. You can pick your reason. A win would move the Broncos to 3-2 going into a stretch of two winnable home games (Chargers, Panthers) sandwiched around a return trip for Payton to New Orleans in Week 7. It would quickly patch over an 0-2 start and be a valuable division and conference victory, one that could make a difference in tiebreaker scenarios during a possible late-season charge to the playoffs. It would also be a nod of respect to the 1977 Broncos AFC championship team being honored at Sunday’s game, including the Ring of Fame inductions of safety Steve Foley and tight end Riley Odoms. That was a group that finally broke through after years of losing, in part, because it finally solved the Raiders.
Most importantly, a Broncos win Sunday would finally erase one of the most confounding losing streaks in franchise history.
Typically, when one division opponent has a run of dominance over another, it’s because the team piling up the victories is in the middle of a stretch of sustained success overall. Take the 16-game winning streak the Chiefs built over the Broncos from 2015 to 2023. Kansas City won three Super Bowls during the seasons that encompassed that streak and appeared in another. The longest current division winning streak belongs to the Green Bay Packers, who have won 10 in a row against the Chicago Bears, dating back to 2019. The Packers have been to the playoffs four times during that stretch, twice reaching the NFC Championship Game. Whenever you study a long division winning streak — i.e., the record 20-game stranglehold the powerhouse Miami Dolphins had over the Buffalo Bills in the 1970s — the team that is beating up on its hapless division foe is usually beating on everyone else, too.
“What’s interesting with good teams is they tend to have success (against) a lot of teams,” Payton said Wednesday.
Las Vegas is a different story. During the four seasons in which it compiled those eight straight wins against the Broncos, the Raiders have made the postseason only once, haven’t won a playoff game and have gone 24-37 overall against non-Denver teams. Hardly a picture of a consistent winner. It’s what makes the Broncos’ futility in this rivalry so perplexing. How did they become the nail to a hammer that isn’t hammering anyone else?
“I mean, I love playing the Broncos,” Raiders All-Pro defensive end Maxx Crosby said during an appearance on the “Games With Names” podcast in April. “They’re probably my favorite team (to play), to be honest. I love playing the Broncos. Every time we play them, I know it’s about to be a big day, no doubt.”
It’s almost always been a big day for Crosby when he plays the Broncos. He has recorded a sack in each of the Raiders’ eight wins during the streak and has 12 total in that span. And those eye-popping numbers don’t even account for the game-wrecking presence he’s had stopping the run. Crosby missed the Raiders’ win against the Browns in Week 4 with an ankle injury, marking the first game he missed since entering the NFL as a fourth-round pick in 2019. Crosby did not practice for the Raiders on Wednesday but said earlier in the week that “the plan is to play versus Denver.”
Even without Crosby, the Raiders on Sunday sacked Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson three times, forced a fumble (Cleveland recovered) and intercepted him once. The Raiders added Christian Wilkins in the offseason, and the defensive tackle has provided consistent interior pressure “that creates protection issues,” Payton said, especially when teams have to commit extra resources to Crosby on the edge.
“They fly around and do a lot of different things,” Nix said. “They are very multiple — good in the back end, good in the front seven. They can get pressure on the quarterback. They tackle well and they are physical. I know it’s going to be an intense game. We have to do a good job executing our plan, knowing they are going to be around, knowing they are going to make plays.”
The Broncos on Sunday will wear throwback jerseys that honor the 1977 team. It was the first team in franchise history to make the playoffs, and it marched all the way to the Super Bowl. Before that season, the Broncos had once played 18 games in a row against the Raiders without a victory. They had lost four in a row before the 1977 season, but a 30-7 rout early that year helped propel Denver toward its first division crown. The rivalry swung back and forth from there, but it was dominated by the Broncos during Mike Shanahan’s tenure as head coach from 1995 to 2008. Shanahan went 17-5 against the Raiders, taking personally a rivalry against the team that fired him after only two seasons in the late 1980s.
Debuting 🔜 #ThrowbackTo77 📸 » https://t.co/VgIQEpNqPM pic.twitter.com/MaHf7DoBSs
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) October 2, 2024
The Broncos’ losing streak against the Raiders is the longest the franchise has endured since that 18-game winless stretch from 1963 to 1971. This current team hasn’t shouldered the weight of the entire streak, nor has Payton. But he is the one charged with ending it. The Broncos can’t keep being the nail in this relationship if they plan to do anything worthwhile.
“I know it’s important for this organization and I know it has been for a long time,” Nix said of the matchup with the Raiders. “As players, we don’t take it lightly.”
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(Top photo of Raiders linebacker Divine Deablo tackling Broncos running back Javonte Williams in January: Candice Ward / Getty Images)
